The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, met this Friday in Washington with officials from Joe Biden’s government and sources from the economic team said that from the meeting “they took the peace of mind that the United States He will work with us.” on issues such as the relationship with multilateral organizations and critical minerals such as lithium.
The meeting was held at the Argentine embassy in Washington and was promoted after the summit between President Alberto Fernández and Biden at the White House a month ago.
On one side of the table were key officials from the political and economic arena, such as Mike Pyledeputy adviser to the National Security Council; John González, adviser to the president for Latin America; Daniel Hornung, economic policy adviser to the president, Gladys Cisneros, special adviser for international economy; Sean Coari, political adviser; Nicholas Klinger, Director of Multilateral Diplomacy e Christina Segal-Knowles, Director of Financial Markets.
In addition to Massa, officials from the economic team, such as Leonardo Madcur and Gabriel Rubinstein and Ambassador Jorge Argüello.
The Argentines left the match satisfied. They understood that the US message of support went in several ways.
First, they were told:We will support the technical agreement they will reach with the Fund”. The IMF approved the fourth program review later this month with some warning signs. Due to the drought, the reserve target had to be relaxed and there are also dark shadows on the fiscal deficit. Things get worse with March’s 7.7% inflation hit revealed this Friday.
The government seeks even more concessions, especially in an election year, and wants to soften more goals. But for now the Fund is firm on the idea that the program should continue to be implemented as it is and this was stated by Kristalina Georgieva. The United States is a key partner in the Fund – it is the country that has the greatest weight on the board of directors – e any changes should have your approval.
At the end of the day Massa meets Gita Gopinath, the number two of the IMF, to talk about the progress of the program and the new contingencies.
Another important issue for Argentina and the United States is lithium and this has been discussed. Argentina is the second country in the world for proven reserves of lithium and the fourth for production capacity. It is the main supplier in the United States and companies such as General Motors, Tesla, Ford and BMW have a supply of Argentine ore for their electric cars.
But today there is a stone in the road. The Inflation Reduction Act promoted by Biden and approved by Congress in November establishes for companies that –to receive subsidies– it is a requirement that some of the minerals in the batteries must have been mined or processed in the United States. or in one of the countries with which it has a free trade agreement, which is not the case in Argentina.
Since our exports would be harmed, the government tries to sign a bilateral agreement with the United States that exempts it from that law in order to be able to export without problems.
The economics team left with signs that there could be news on the matter soon. The reality is that for the US, lithium is a strategic input and it fears China’s advance on this critical mineral. and it would not be strange to speed up a bilateral agreement to exempt Argentina from that law which complicates it.
In Economy they say that the United States has pledged support even before other international organizations such as the World Bank and the IDB to accelerate credit portfolios and add new ones. The ideal bill that Massa has for this year is: 2,500 million dollars from the World Bank, 2,800 from the CAF and 1,900 from the IDB. We’ll have to see how much of that finally reaches the plant.
Another topic that is about to be implemented and which has been proposed by two New York banks, it is a new issuance of dollar debt, but this time with the guarantee of international organizations. There would be two bond placements for an amount of around 600 million with guarantees from the World Bank and the CAF for 5 years. With the support of institutions the risk would be less.
Massa also met with the presidential candidate of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, which the White House promotes and will surely be voted on when David Malpass retires in May. The minister expressed Argentina’s support for his candidacy and the need for reforms in the credit system and bureaucracy was discussed to speed up the approval of disbursements, especially those that go directly to reserves. “Argentina has had no budget support for 5 years”Massa complained.
Source: Clarin
